The Dark Side of JP Morgan Chase’s Record Year

When Corporate Success Comes At Employees’ Expense

Well, well, 2025 continues to deliver lessons we can all stand to learn from. To kick things off and set some context, let’s take a trip down memory lane. In case you missed it, JP Morgan Chase was all over the news last year, and not for the right reasons. They made headlines for mass layoffs and their rigid five-day return-to-office mandate. There were countless not-so-subtle indications leadership was more focused on profits and control than creating a great place to work. However, they could be dismissed as debatable but isolated decisions. And yet, there was a developing pattern, one that seemed to indicate it wasn’t over.

Then comes along 2025, and for a moment, it seemed like perhaps the story had changed. Perhaps, leadership had made the right choice for the business and the people who stuck it out. They announced a record-breaking year, pulling in $59 billion in profits, an astonishing 18% increase from the previous year. If you looked at the numbers and assumed a waterfall effect, you might conclude that while you sometimes have to make tough and unpopular decisions, in the end everyone wins. Except everyone isn’t winning.

More recently, the less flattering side of their win surfaced. CEO Jamie Dimon awarded himself an 8% raise, ballooning his total compensation to $39 million. Meanwhile, the vast majority of employees had their raises capped at 2%, or at least the ones that hadn’t been shown the door. To make matters worse, part of the executive leaders’ celebration included further discussions about future cuts to operating costs, eliminating more employees, and replacing countless roles with AI.

Per usual, I made my raw, off-the-cuff video to process my thoughts if you’re interested. However, I opted to my deeper weekly reflection here because this is the perfect case study in everything wrong with the world of work today. Everywhere you look, it seems like profits go up, senior leadership rewards itself, and the very people who made that success possible are treated as expendable.

So, what can we take from this situation as we continue into 2025? Well, here’s what came to mind for me this week.

Key Reflections

“Real leadership isn’t about sitting at the head of the table while others go hungry. It’s about making sure there’s enough for everyone.”

I’m not suggesting everything is equal, but we have a responsibility to make sure it’s equitable. When a company has its best financial year ever, it’s only reasonable for the people that made it a reality to share in the success. Tragically, we see time and time again the rewards disproportionately flow straight to the top, while the vast majority get little more than a pep talk, or worse, a pink slip. It seems leadership has forgotten that a rising tide is supposed to lift all boats, not just the executive yacht.

The irony is that JP Morgan’s leadership missed a strategic and low-hanging opportunity to strengthen trust and show employees their contributions mattered. They could have reinforced that performance is rewarded and commitment is valued. Heck, distributing a few billion would be a rounding error. Instead, they sent a message that no matter how well the company does, rewards are reserved for the few at the top. Talk about a message that erodes motivation and leaves everyone asking, “Why should I keep pushing?”

This isn’t a novel idea; it’s basic leadership principle. Great leaders know that winning at the cost of your people isn’t winning. It’s short-term thinking disguised as strategy.

“Culture isn’t built on words. It’s built on the decisions you make when no one’s watching.”

Companies always have leadership values written down somewhere. They hang on walls, are referenced in meetings, and get tossed into corporate messaging. However, values don’t mean $h!t if people at the top don’t live by them. I’m familiar with JP’s official leadership values, and I can tell you this behavior is in stark contrast to them. However, you don’t need to know insiders to observe the contradictions. Check out the business principles page on the web, and you’ll see what I mean. Why bother having standards if you’re not going to follow them?

Now, it might feel easy to throw stones at JP Morgan given they had a record year. The disconnect is blatantly obvious when this kind of nonsense happens during good times. However, be careful. It becomes a whole lot easier to make excuses when things are tough or nobody’s watching. Hard times are when integrity is really tested. If you do a good job valuing people when things are great but treat them as expendable the moment it’s convenient, you never really valued them in the first place.

So remember, if you preach integrity but reward self-interest, no matter how subtle, don’t be surprised when your culture reflects that.

“The idea that business is a zero-sum game is a lie; it’s just lazy leadership.”

One of the biggest myths in corporate leadership is that success must come at someone else’s expense. If we’re going to win, someone has to lose. Hitting record profits requires cutting jobs, reducing benefits, and squeezing every ounce out of people, right? Interestingly, JP Morgan’s own numbers prove that isn’t true. They had their best financial year ever with all their employees who also happened to be working in a flexible environment.

The problem isn’t that companies can’t win without cutting costs, it’s that many leaders don’t want to do the work to find or accept that there’s a better way. Investing in people, maintaining flexibility, and prioritizing engagement requires effort and adaptability. Unfortunately, rather than build a model where success benefits everyone, leadership often takes the easy and familiar road by increasing pressure, striping away autonomy, and soothing themselves by calling it good business. It’s a short-term play that only works until people have other options.

I find myself perpetually frustrated because it doesn’t have to be this way. However, as long as we keep accepting the lie that winning requires others to lose, this cycle will continue.

“If you squeeze out the wrong people, don’t be surprised when you’re left with the wrong team.”

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in meetings where leaders assert that despite this kind of behavior, the best employees will stick it out. Many believe no matter how unfair the decisions, how rigid the policies, or how little appreciation is shown, top talent will always be there. However, I can tell you from experience that is not how it works. When you make it clear that rewards won’t be shared, control is more important than trust, and leadership will always take care of itself first, the best employees don’t wait around. They leave, even if they’re still physically present.

The ones who leave first are almost always the people you should have fought hardest to keep. When the culture sucks, guess who stays? The people with no other options. While it will take some time, it shifts the entire DNA of a company. Eventually, leadership looks around and wonders why engagement is down, top performers don’t stick around, thinking has dried up, and why their once-high-performing culture feels like it’s running on fumes. Tragically, by the time they see it, the damage is already done. It’s too late to fix.

So, either build a culture that makes top talent want to stay, or acknowledge you’re intentionally creating an environment that pushes them out.

Concluding Thoughts

Alright, so, where do we go from here?

Perhaps the company you work for rewards short-term thinking, self-preservation, and squeezing every last drop out of employees. That doesn’t mean you have to lead that way. You always have a choice. In fact, I’d contest leadership is about making the right decisions even when the people and systems around us incentivizes the opposite. And, I’ll acknowledge it’s exhausting when you’re swimming upstream. However, there’s a hidden benefit to swimming upstream: it keeps you strong. The leaders who consistently push against the current and refuse to play by the rules of exploitation are the ones who always stay ahead. They also consistently find themselves surrounded by people that want to show up, always do their best work, and consistently have each other’s backs.

So, if you work at a place like JP Morgan, don’t let it break you. Take everything you can from the experience. After all, sometimes the best lessons are the ones that teach you what not to do. Carefully observe all the cracks in the system, the decisions that erode trust, and the way others lose their best people without even realizing it. Those are lessons you will carry forward, whether you decide to stay or go. And, when you’re ready, it’s okay to move on. You don’t owe your company your loyalty. The company has to earn it.

Now, you probably won’t change the company culture overall, but that’s okay because it’s not your responsibility. However, if each of us makes these choices, choosing to lead differently, to push back where we can, to build environments where people actually want to be, maybe we start to turn the tide. And maybe, just maybe, if enough people do the same, we can change the persistent belief that this is just how business works by proving it doesn’t have to be this way.

With that, I’ll see you on the other side.